Nuba

Designed by Reiner Knizia
Translation by Julian Simpson
Distributed from The Rules Bank by Mike Siggins

2 players
aged 12 and older
about 20 minutes

COMPONENTS

1 board,

20 playing pieces (10 disks in two colours)

INTRODUCTION

In the Sudanese highlands live the Nuba, one of the last primitive
races on Earth. After the annual harvest all the villagers celebrate
with the 'SANDAI. The highpoint of this festival is a wrestling match
followed by a music competition. In this game a player wins by making
the best use of the wrestling and musical talents of his team.

THE AIM OF THE GAME

The aim of the game is to be the player to get the best musician
possible to his opponent's base. In order to achieve this a player must
move his stronger, less musical, team members so that the better
musicians have a clear route to their objective.

OUTLINE

One player is red, the other green. Each has a team of nine wrestlers
of values 1 to 9, and a Champion, which is marked with an 'XI. The lower
the number the better the wrestling ability; the higher the number the
better the musical skill. The Champion is musically perfect and is a
fearless wrestler.

In the wrestling competition a piece with a low value beats a piece
with a higher value. The Champion beats each of an opponent's pieces but
in turn can be beaten by any of an opponents pieces.

GAME PLAY

Placing the Pieces on the Board

Starting with the green player, each player alternately places one
piece at a time on the 10 squares (2 rows of 5) nearest to him. This
continues until all the pieces are on the board. The placing of pieces
is important since the stronger wrestlers (i.e the pieces with the
lowest numbers) should be placed so that they are in the best positions
to engage the opposition.

Moving the Pieces

Once all the pieces are on the board they can be moved. Players take
it in turns to move one of their pieces. A piece can move one square
directly forwards or one square diagonally forwards. A piece cannot move
backwards or sideways. A piece can move into an empty square or one
occupied by an opponent's piece of the same or higher value (lower
strength). In this event the higher value piece is beaten and removed
from the board.

A square occupied by an opponent's piece of lower value (higher
strength) cannot be entered. A player must move one of his pieces if he
can. He may only pass if none of his pieces can move.

Musicians

If a player gets one of his pieces to his opponent's base (the row of
5 squares nearest to his opponent) then the piece is placed in the
special section to the side of the board. This piece represents a
performing musician. If subsequently a piece of higher value (i.e. a
better musician) reaches his opponent's base, this piece becomes the
musician, replacing the one currently occupying the music square. If a
piece with a lower, or the same value arrives at the base then it has no
influence as a musician and is removed from the board. There can be only
one musician performing at any time.

GAME END

The game ends when one of the players no longer has the opportunity
to become the musician. The player who owns the musician is therefore
the winner. If a player gets his Champion (X) to his opponent's base
then he immediately wins the game.

VARIANT

In this variant each player attempts to collect together a band of
musicians. In this case all the pieces that reach the base are placed in
the music square. The game ends once all the pieces have been removed
from the board either by being eliminated or by joining the group of
musicians. Each player totals up the value of all pieces that have
become musicians. The player with the higher score wins. As previously
if a player succeeds in getting his Champion to his opponent's base he
wins immediately.